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Hilda Johansson #7
Murder in Burnt Orange
It's a heat wave in more ways than one in the summer of 1905, as strikes, arson, and train wrecks threaten the fabric of civilized society in South Bend, Indiana. In the tumultuous first years of the twentieth century, anarchy seems to rule, with the assassination of an American president and labor unrest like the Anthracite Coal Strike bringing misery to millions. How can a Swedish immigrant like Hilda Johanssson, formerly a housemaid and now pregnant with her first child, possibly affect these conditions? Making deductions worthy of Sherlock Holmes - and using her own "Baker Street Irregulars" - Hilda reognizes a pattern to the disturbing events. No one thinks she'll actually be able to solve matters, especially since custom forbids her even leaving the house. But they reckon without Hilda's quick mind and stubborn determination to see the job through - even when the crime wave turns into murder, and touches her nearest and dearest.
2561 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
7 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne M. Dams
46 books217 followersJeanne M. Dams lives in South Bend, Indiana. The Body in the Transept, which introduced Dorothy Martin, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Dams is also the author of Green Grow the Victims and other Hilda Johansson mysteries published by Walker & Company.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 14, 2011
Murder in Burnt Orange
By Jeanne M. Dams
Copyright September 2011
Publisher Perseverance Press
Hilda Johansson, formerly a housemaid and now a lady, is pregnant with her first, longed-for child--but she's miserable in the scorching Indiana summer heat in 1905. Since she's making everyone else miserable as well, her family encourages her to look into some current local crimes to take mind off her discomfort. No one thinks she'll actually be able to solve matters of labor unrest, arson, and train wrecking, especially since custom forbids her even leaving the house. But they reckon without Hilda's quick mind and stubborn determination to see the job through--even when the crime wave turns into murder, and touches her nearest and dearest.
Hilda is not happy. In fact she hot, tired, restless, crabby, touchy, and making everyone in her house unhappy also. Hilda is six months into her first pregnancy (and a/c hasn’t been invented yet) and just can’t sleep or get comfortable. Her mother and her aunt Molly decide that what she needs is something to take her mind off her body and put her brain to use solving a mystery.
At first her husband is happy to go along with this since Hilda won’t be going out of the house, sticking her nose into things. The plan is for her to do all the brain work and have her “Baker Street Irregulars” help her out. Her mother and Aunt Molly also will keep their ears open for information that will help her solve this problem.
The “problem” is a series of train accidents that are unexplained and done purposely by person or persons unknown for purpose unknown at this time. Innocent people have been hurt and killed. The reason the problem is brought to her attention is that members of the family travel on the trains to get back and forth from South Bend to Indianapolis.
We’re going to be involved with Unions, Union Busters, Gangsters, and Pinkertons. How will it all turn out you ask? Well you’ll just have to read the book.
Jeanne M. Dams’ can be found at her website http://www.jeannedams.com/
FTC Full Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes that I would review it.
By Jeanne M. Dams
Copyright September 2011
Publisher Perseverance Press
Hilda Johansson, formerly a housemaid and now a lady, is pregnant with her first, longed-for child--but she's miserable in the scorching Indiana summer heat in 1905. Since she's making everyone else miserable as well, her family encourages her to look into some current local crimes to take mind off her discomfort. No one thinks she'll actually be able to solve matters of labor unrest, arson, and train wrecking, especially since custom forbids her even leaving the house. But they reckon without Hilda's quick mind and stubborn determination to see the job through--even when the crime wave turns into murder, and touches her nearest and dearest.
Hilda is not happy. In fact she hot, tired, restless, crabby, touchy, and making everyone in her house unhappy also. Hilda is six months into her first pregnancy (and a/c hasn’t been invented yet) and just can’t sleep or get comfortable. Her mother and her aunt Molly decide that what she needs is something to take her mind off her body and put her brain to use solving a mystery.
At first her husband is happy to go along with this since Hilda won’t be going out of the house, sticking her nose into things. The plan is for her to do all the brain work and have her “Baker Street Irregulars” help her out. Her mother and Aunt Molly also will keep their ears open for information that will help her solve this problem.
The “problem” is a series of train accidents that are unexplained and done purposely by person or persons unknown for purpose unknown at this time. Innocent people have been hurt and killed. The reason the problem is brought to her attention is that members of the family travel on the trains to get back and forth from South Bend to Indianapolis.
We’re going to be involved with Unions, Union Busters, Gangsters, and Pinkertons. How will it all turn out you ask? Well you’ll just have to read the book.
Jeanne M. Dams’ can be found at her website http://www.jeannedams.com/
FTC Full Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes that I would review it.
May 7, 2021
I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. However, the main character, Hilda, is pregnant, and there is so much moaning and groaning about how hot it is and how difficult it is to be pregnant - Hilda is exhausted, tired, cranky, can't get out of a chair or a bed by herself, etc etc because she is pregnant. My goodness - the woman has servants and a husband who is very caring and thoughtful; she never has to lift a finger! I wonder how she would have dealt with the pregnancy if she was still a servant? I normally enjoy knowing more about a book's characters and what they are feeling, going through, etc, but all this 'suffering' over a natural condition was way over the top. Having had 4 children myself, 2 of which are twins, while working, doing my own housework, etc etc I was more annoyed by Hilda's complaining than by society's rules concerning pregnancy during the time period in which the story is set.
August 19, 2016
The year is 1905; the place is South Bend, Indiana; the season is summer; and the temperature is hotter than Hades. Hilda is hot, miserable, and very pregnant. To take her off her misery, her aunt Molly suggests that Hilda should turn her detecting abilities to solving the rash of deliberate train derailments. Soon, other crimes and misfortune hit a bit closer to home. Hilda, still wretchedly hot with her temper sometimes flaring, is determined to uncover the guilty parties. But all her sleuthing – at least nearly all of it – must be done from home, since a pregnant lady cannot be seen in public, except for trips to church. But Hilda, being Hilda, does let propriety get in her way. This book practically gives off heat and humidity as the story develops. Engaging characters in a well-developed plot make this tale a very enjoyable cozy mystery.
May 24, 2023
During a heat wave in South Bend Indiana a heavily pregnant Hilda Johansson helps solve a mystery involving train wrecks, worker unrest and a mysterious fire at the store where Patrick (her now husband) works. In her state and bound by the social mores of the early 1900's it is difficult for Hilda to go out gathering information on her own, so she enlists the help of her brother Sven, John Bolton, the coachman from her old place of employment, her husband and some others to help her out. This seems to be the last entry in the series, and I am sad to see Hilda go, although maybe her character arc has ended as she settles into married life and motherhood. I have enjoyed her adventures as a maid at the Studebaker mansion in South Bend. I visited there once because of the books - it is a restaurant now! I think I may have one left to read - I think I may have skipped the book just before this one so I will look into that.
January 20, 2023
This time around Hilda Johansson Cavenaugh must untangle the many threads of small crimes in and around businesses in South Bend. During an oppressive heat wave when even Hilda finds it hard to think straight, she needs to find the patterns between train derailments, business fires, unions and murder.
Can this be the last in the Hilda Johannson series? Say it ain't so! I hope to read further exploits of Hilda and her family & friends in turn-of-the-century South Bend.
Can this be the last in the Hilda Johannson series? Say it ain't so! I hope to read further exploits of Hilda and her family & friends in turn-of-the-century South Bend.
November 1, 2017
Here she is, married and in the late stages of pregnancy, and there are all these untoward occurrences in South Bend. What is a nosy former housemaid to do when propriety and good sense dictate that she stay in the house? Well, if you've read any of the previous books in this series, you know exactly how far propriety and good sense will take headstrong Hilda.
December 29, 2018
This is an excellent story that explicates how corruption operates. How evil men manipulate needy men to do evil deeds to build an evil empire. Generally, I have not witnessed much evil in my life and have tended to dismiss the notion. But Jeanne Dams has shown me, with this story, how ordinary and pernicious evil can be.
August 24, 2017
Irish Immigrant marries Swedish Immigrant becomes rich and tries to live in upper society after many years of being a servant. Great series with tons of Historical information from South Bend and surrounding areas.
February 27, 2021
The ending could have been better rather than pushing Hilda out of the household to the walls of her childbirth bed. We don’t even get her feelings and thoughts about her babies
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 30, 2021
Vastly overwritten. All tell, no show. Nothing happens!
December 11, 2022
ok. took me a while to get interested. But after that, it was ok.
October 30, 2023
I love this series.
March 19, 2023
3.5 stars
The headlines grab attention: A sweltering, killing heat wave; bloody protests and deadly revolution threatened abroad; strikes against major corporations; anti-union legislation; corrupt government; hostility to immigrants. Where and when are we? The United States in 2011? No, we’re in 1905, Teddy Roosevelt is president, thanks to the assassination of William McKinley by an anarchist, and both heat and crime grip South Bend, Indiana.
Hilda Cavanaugh, née Johansson, Swedish immigrant and former housemaid who is now a respectable, middle-class lady, is pregnant with her first child. She is also bored to the point of depression. Made more miserable by a sweltering heat wave that wilts her husband Patrick’s collars by noon, Hilda drives all around her to distraction until her attention is diverted to the wreck of the Twentieth Century Flier. The train flew off the tracks and killed several people. It is an open question whether it is accident or sabotage. A deadly fire shortly after the crash threatens the Cavanaughs’ livelihood, the family black sheep shows up to cause pain and suffering, and underhanded shenanigans associated with “union organizers” cause problems at the Studebaker factory. Despite increasing danger, Hilda refuses to stop until the villains are brought to justice.
To achieve that goal, Hilda has to get around two major hurdles--her new social status and her pregnancy. Because of her pregnancy, Hilda cannot leave her home, save to go to church. (Readers are told this to the point of annoyance.) Further complicating matters, her new social status takes her out of the realm of servants and servants’s talk and changes how she can address people, if she can talk to them at all. "Hilda felt herself blushing. It was difficult, this transition from servant to lady. She and John [Bolton, the Studebaker's coachman] had been friends, easy in one another's company. . . " (47). Now, a social gulf exists between them. Of necessity, Hilda breaks conventions in varying and shocking ways--some dictated by necessity, some by her curiosity--but we feel her anxiety and frustration every time.
Still, Hilda tries to be good. She gets others to do the legwork for her--her family, Patrick, his family, the cops, even the reprobate John Bolton--where she can. Sometimes, co-operation is grudgingly given because her agents are as awkward and uncomfortable as she is. She sorts through the information as it comes in from her agents, and she analyses it, usually with clear logic. At one point, however, her thought process jumps to an entirely too convenient remembrance. That said, Hilda’s skillful sleuthing, albeit at a frustrating remove, allows her to construct a web that succeeds in catching the criminals.
In many ways, this is not so much a whodunit as it a whydunnit. Crime grows organically from its political and social context. In 1905, the age of the robber barons gives way to the age of the progressives though not without a nasty, physical fight. Corruption, money in all its nefarious guises, means power; power must be taken, for it is rarely given up freely. The immigrants, who make up much of the industrial labor force are beginning, however reluctantly, to give up their mutual antagonisms and unionize. In unity, there is both strength and power--enough to make the villains seek to stop it.
The social contexts, both personal and community-wide, provide the great strength of this novel. As usual, they also provide some of the greater weaknesses. There is almost too much going on, and a reader without a decent grasp of the major themes of this period may well get lost. Some of the criminal connections are rather tenuously made, particularly that of the central villain to New York’s infamous Tammany Hall. The whole story was well contained within South Bend and needed no reach to New York.
Dams uses many deft touches to paint a picture of a socially and politically dynamic period. Hilda Johansson Cavanaugh is a smart and charming character through whose we can see this world. It is a world closer to us than many would care to admit and from which we can still learn much.
Received from the publisher
The headlines grab attention: A sweltering, killing heat wave; bloody protests and deadly revolution threatened abroad; strikes against major corporations; anti-union legislation; corrupt government; hostility to immigrants. Where and when are we? The United States in 2011? No, we’re in 1905, Teddy Roosevelt is president, thanks to the assassination of William McKinley by an anarchist, and both heat and crime grip South Bend, Indiana.
Hilda Cavanaugh, née Johansson, Swedish immigrant and former housemaid who is now a respectable, middle-class lady, is pregnant with her first child. She is also bored to the point of depression. Made more miserable by a sweltering heat wave that wilts her husband Patrick’s collars by noon, Hilda drives all around her to distraction until her attention is diverted to the wreck of the Twentieth Century Flier. The train flew off the tracks and killed several people. It is an open question whether it is accident or sabotage. A deadly fire shortly after the crash threatens the Cavanaughs’ livelihood, the family black sheep shows up to cause pain and suffering, and underhanded shenanigans associated with “union organizers” cause problems at the Studebaker factory. Despite increasing danger, Hilda refuses to stop until the villains are brought to justice.
To achieve that goal, Hilda has to get around two major hurdles--her new social status and her pregnancy. Because of her pregnancy, Hilda cannot leave her home, save to go to church. (Readers are told this to the point of annoyance.) Further complicating matters, her new social status takes her out of the realm of servants and servants’s talk and changes how she can address people, if she can talk to them at all. "Hilda felt herself blushing. It was difficult, this transition from servant to lady. She and John [Bolton, the Studebaker's coachman] had been friends, easy in one another's company. . . " (47). Now, a social gulf exists between them. Of necessity, Hilda breaks conventions in varying and shocking ways--some dictated by necessity, some by her curiosity--but we feel her anxiety and frustration every time.
Still, Hilda tries to be good. She gets others to do the legwork for her--her family, Patrick, his family, the cops, even the reprobate John Bolton--where she can. Sometimes, co-operation is grudgingly given because her agents are as awkward and uncomfortable as she is. She sorts through the information as it comes in from her agents, and she analyses it, usually with clear logic. At one point, however, her thought process jumps to an entirely too convenient remembrance. That said, Hilda’s skillful sleuthing, albeit at a frustrating remove, allows her to construct a web that succeeds in catching the criminals.
In many ways, this is not so much a whodunit as it a whydunnit. Crime grows organically from its political and social context. In 1905, the age of the robber barons gives way to the age of the progressives though not without a nasty, physical fight. Corruption, money in all its nefarious guises, means power; power must be taken, for it is rarely given up freely. The immigrants, who make up much of the industrial labor force are beginning, however reluctantly, to give up their mutual antagonisms and unionize. In unity, there is both strength and power--enough to make the villains seek to stop it.
The social contexts, both personal and community-wide, provide the great strength of this novel. As usual, they also provide some of the greater weaknesses. There is almost too much going on, and a reader without a decent grasp of the major themes of this period may well get lost. Some of the criminal connections are rather tenuously made, particularly that of the central villain to New York’s infamous Tammany Hall. The whole story was well contained within South Bend and needed no reach to New York.
Dams uses many deft touches to paint a picture of a socially and politically dynamic period. Hilda Johansson Cavanaugh is a smart and charming character through whose we can see this world. It is a world closer to us than many would care to admit and from which we can still learn much.
Received from the publisher
September 18, 2016
Murder in Burnt Orange by Jeanne M. Dams is the 7th book of the Hilda Johansson historical mystery series set in 1905 South Bend, Indiana. Hilda is a married lady now, Mrs. Patrick Cavanaugh, with servants of her own. Soon she will bear hers and Patrick's first child. She's struggling with the size and lethargy of late pregnancy, during a record heat wave that makes life nearly unbearable for everyone. A series of train wrecks are the latest news, along with arson and strikes. When the violence reaches close to home - Uncle Dan's store - Hilda is glad to put her mind to work looking for a pattern to the crimes. Society's rules forbid her to leave home except for church, due to her advanced pregnancy, so she must rely on her network of friends, family and contacts from previous sleuthing efforts. Hilda is a generous, kind and compassionate woman. Her interactions with servants, friends and acquaintances as she puzzles out the solution are a pleasure to read, of much more interest than the eventual revelation of the crime spree organizers and their motivation.
October 11, 2013
This novel is one of the best I have read about the heat of summer. It is 1905 in South Bend, Indiana, and Hilda is married to Patrick and they have a beautiful home and expecting their first baby. Hilda lies around the house taking cool baths and sitting in front of a fan, but cannot get comfortable. The rest of family is also suffering from her complaining until someone comes up with the idea to give a mystery to solve. There are plenty to choose from as the town is experiencing labor disputes, arson, and even the deliberate derailing of a train.
The ploy works as she relies on friends of her brother Erik to be her eyes and ears. A policeman from the local force also helps her and Patrick has trouble curtaining her activities. There is a surprise ending that makes this continuation of Hilda's adventures one of her best.
The ploy works as she relies on friends of her brother Erik to be her eyes and ears. A policeman from the local force also helps her and Patrick has trouble curtaining her activities. There is a surprise ending that makes this continuation of Hilda's adventures one of her best.
October 15, 2011
Hilda Johanssen Cavanaugh is back, and she is very great with child. Meanwhile, train wrecks and labor problems are happening in South Bend in the early twentieth century, and who better than Hilda to solve what the police have been unable to crack. Operating mostly from home, Hilda employs her network of acquaintances in a manner that would put many twenty-first century networkers to shame. I feared for the state of the Hilda series when she married and stopped working as a servant in the Studebaker house, but Hilda is back and just as good as ever. This is a really fun historical novel. And, the birth occurs in this book so there is no need to wait for the next installment, which is always an annoyance to me.
October 12, 2012
I can always count on a good read from Jeanne Dams, whether from her Dorothy Martin mysteries or her Hilda Johansson series. In Murder in Burnt Orange, the seventh Hilda Johansson mystery, Hilda is pregnant in the miserable hot summer of 1905 in South Bend, Indiana. The city is plagued not only by the heat but by train wrecks, arson, labor unrest and murder Unable to travel far from her home, she enlists family, friends and former colleagues to do her sleuthing for her to solve the origin of this crime spree. The historical details was expertly handled and her characters continue to grow and develop.
September 17, 2012
An early 1900s mystery with an interesting twist - the detective is a pregnant lady in her confinement. Not only must she figure out who is behind a series of train accidents and labor unrests in her town, but she has to work around being expected to stay in the house as ladies did during their pregnancies back then.
I didn't realize when I picked this up at the library that this is number 7 in a series. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series, starting at the beginning, as I really enjoyed the characters and the setting as well as the author's writing style.
I didn't realize when I picked this up at the library that this is number 7 in a series. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series, starting at the beginning, as I really enjoyed the characters and the setting as well as the author's writing style.
September 10, 2013
The summer of 1905 seems to Hilda to be one long heat wave. Pregnant with her first child, Hilda is a former maid who is now a lady with her own home and husband. Bored and unable to move around much, Hilda becomes intrigued by the series of strikes, arson, train wrecks and general labor unrest that plagues the nation and South Bend in particular. When a suspicious fire occurs at the store in which her husband is part-owner, Hilda is horrified when the body of a man is pulled from the store. Things quickly spiral out of control and the killer soon threatens Hilda and those she holds dear.
March 29, 2013
I'm not a fan if this novel. The premise is a good one which is why I wanted to read it. It is about a woman who basically has the smarts to solve mysteries, much like Nancy Drew, in a time when woman were believed to be nothing but wives, daughters and/or house maids. The writing was good, it truly brought you back into the early 1900s. That is why I was not happy with it. It upset me too much the treatment of women in that time.
June 13, 2012
Another good visit with Hilda, and a very interesting twist on the mystery. Much more t'inking than acting for Hilda and it worked quite well. I had the surprise ending pegged in the first few chapters, but it did not destroy the enjoyment of the mystery as I had trouble figuring out whodunit. Definitely a visit with good friends and I wish there were more.
January 2, 2012
It is impressive that Hilda managed to solve a mystery and avert a riot while she was hugely pregnant and largely unable to leave the house. The story was complicated and interesting. I love that this series is set in historic South Bend and that I am familiar with many of the locations.
June 16, 2012
I enjoyed having a mystery that takes place near Chicago during the early days of industry when the unions were beginning to organize. It gave a good sense of what it was like to be a woman in society at the time and the "upstairs, downstairs" differences.
June 23, 2012
Jeanne M. Dams' Hilda Johansson is a great character. . . Murder in Burnt Orange was an exciting visit to South Bend and the early days of the 20th century. Debs, Gompers and other historical figures add credibility to a fast-paced summer read! I can't wait for her next chapter. . .
July 27, 2013
What I enjoyed the most about this book is that the author (who is from South Bend), gave us
a view of the area back in the early 1900's! She scans the local news stories from that time
(1905) period and develops a plot.
a view of the area back in the early 1900's! She scans the local news stories from that time
(1905) period and develops a plot.
November 12, 2015
Love her books, but this was disturbing because the violence with unions back then was real. Hard to think people could be that ugly. Liked the ending and the historical facts. Took a while to finish.
December 29, 2015
A well written historical fiction based on real events in the US in 1905. Gave a good rendition of the politics of labour at the time. I do find Hilda a bit irritating occasionally but that also shows well written characterisation.
January 15, 2012
I didn't love this book, but I want to read the first in the series to give Holds one more chance.
December 14, 2012
Never quite sure if I like Hilda....she is so arrogant and stubborn but I keep reading each one. Nice to see her finally settled into her own home but I did miss Studebaker Mansion.
December 6, 2015
Interesting having grown up in south bend
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews